


For The Roses

by annalore



Category: National Football League RPF
Genre: Aging, Angst, Losing, M/M, Sports Narratives, Super Bowl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-27
Updated: 2014-01-27
Packaged: 2018-01-09 23:14:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1151942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annalore/pseuds/annalore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Super Bowl is what they all strive for, but only two teams can go each year, and only one can win.  Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Wes Welker reflect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Horse Race

**Author's Note:**

> Because JacAlley got me into football, made me love the Jets, suggested I write football fanfic, and then hit me over the head with Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Wes Welker, and made me love them too.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tom Brady will not watch the Super Bowl. He has no rooting interest. Based on [interview comments](http://itiswhatitis.weei.com/sports/newengland/football/patriots/2014/01/20/tom-brady-on-dc-its-a-very-abrupt-end-to-season/).

So the Broncos and the Seahawks will go to the Super Bowl.

All season, it's seemed like an inevitability.  Like destiny crowned them winners from the start.  And yet, it rarely happens that way.  It's rarely the best that make it in the end.  Statistics say that.  He knows that from experience.

"You don't have a rooting interest?" Wes asks over the phone.  It's hard to tell whether he's hurt, or just joking.

He wonders if it was a lie.  He wonders if this will become a turning point.  The year Tom Brady wanted someone else to win more than he did himself.

They say he did so much with so little.  Peyton did what he did with the world behind him.  With the best at his disposal.  With Wes.

When he thinks of time running out, he feels it far more keenly for Peyton than for himself.  From the scar on his neck, to the lingering numbness in his arm, everything about him seems poised to fail.

When he thinks about the Super Bowl, he wants it for Peyton.  He wants it for Wes.  And only then, after that, does he want it for himself.


	2. Crowning Glory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peyton needs this win, no matter what it costs him.

All season, he's been waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The seven touchdown passes on opening day.  Going undefeated.  Going home to Indy and losing.  Facing the Patriots and losing.  The Chargers.

But those were the only games they lost.  It was all forgotten in the talk of records set and career seasons.  And as he won, the press wrote a new narrative of his career.

In the middle of it all, he stood on a frozen field in Foxborough, trying to find a way to congratulate his greatest rival.  Knowing they'd meet again.  There was something about Tom in the cold, standing solid and immovable, that chilled him to his soul.

He isn't clutch.  He can't win when it counts.  That's what they used to say.  So they wait for him to choke.  They wait for the Patriots to win.  Half of him expects it, too.

And then... It doesn't happen.  Nothing happens.  The Broncos win.

Somewhere, they're writing a new narrative for Tom.  That his best years are long behind him, Super Bowl rings no more than a faint memory.

Tom wins with graciousness and he loses with humility, but at night, there's anguish in his eyes.  Peyton wishes that it didn't have to come down to a choice between them. He'll chose himself. He has to.


	3. Also Ran

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wes just wants his due.

He's just a distraction.  He's nothing when it comes to the greatest quarterback rivalry of a generation.

Maybe they mention him, somewhere after the accolades and before the predictions -- Wes Welker, who used to play for the Patriots and now catches passes from Peyton Manning.  Not a playmaker, not a game changer, just a bit of human interest.

After the game, the pick play is all anyone wants to talk about, and all it does is remind him of why he left Boston.  Tom doesn't even stand up for him, not really.  He's far too political for that.  It hurts, even more than the fact that he says he won't be watching.

The media talks about great quarterbacks and young quarterbacks.  Strong defenses and invincible offenses.  And Wes Welker, who dropped the most important pass of his life and took out a former teammate.

He wants to win.  He wants Tom to be proud of him, and to be happy for him.  He wants to hear Peyton say that he couldn't have done it without him.

For once, he wants to be the star.


End file.
